Viofo A129 Duo totally dead after firmware update

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New Member

The camera was only installed in my car 3 days ago but I noticed that many or all of the videos it recorded were corrupted so they could not even be viewed on the Viofo app on my phone - they just give errors. therefore, I decided to use the Viofo app on the phone to upgrade the firmware to the latest version. After the app had downloaded the firmware file it then asked me to connect back to the camera by WiFi ( which I did ) and it then indicated that the update was successful and I should wait for the camera to restart. I waited 10 minutes but the camera never restarted! The Rec LED was lit permanently the whole time ( i.e. not flashing ) but it never restarted and now the camera does not work at all. If the ignition is turned on ( or a USB cable inserted ) then the Rec LED lights up but the display never comes on any more. The camera is totally dead after spending a lot for the camera and the installation.

New Member

Thanks for the reply. I did try manually updating it before but the camera was still doing the same thing - i.e. Rec LED coming on but nothing else. However, it looks like I fixed it now. It looks like the camera suddenly decided it does not like the SD card any more. I found another SD card and I used that one instead to upgradee the firmware and it seems ok now. It seems to dislike the 128gb Samsung Evo Plus SD card now for some reason - even though the SD card is still working on my PC and it is class 10

Active Member

Thanks for the reply. I did try manually updating it before but the camera was still doing the same thing - i.e. Rec LED coming on but nothing else. However, it looks like I fixed it now. It looks like the camera suddenly decided it does not like the SD card any more. I found another SD card and I used that one instead to upgradee the firmware and it seems ok now. It seems to dislike the 128gb Samsung Evo Plus SD card now for some reason - even though the SD card is still working on my PC and it is class 10

New Member

That is true - I didn't do that. But when I used the phone app to upgrade the firmware, why didn't that automatically do a format before adding the file to the card? I checked the SD card after the camera was locked up and I could see that the Viofo app had already copied the bin file to the SD card but it had not done a format because all the videos were still there.
When I used my other SD card, I just deleted all the files on the SD card before adding the bin file and that one worked fine.

Active Member

It's always recommended to format the memory card inside the camera before using. 128GB cards do not come preformatted to fat32, which is the required file system for most dash cameras. Formatting inside the camera formats them to the fat32 system.

New Member

I forgot to mention - after the Viofo app upgrade attempt had killed the camera I was not able to use it to format the SD card. I wanted to format it but I could not use the camera since it would not work at all.
This SD was formatted in the camera before I started using it - but that didn't seem to stop it corrupting video files etc.
It certainly seems like the Viofo camera does not like my Samsung Evo Plus SD card. I presume that may be why the videos keep getting corrupted as well. But then what SD can I use? Do I really need to buy a Viofo Sd card or do you know of any others which ok in this camera?

Active Member

I would test the card with the free program h2testw. There are a lot of fake Samsung cards out there. Be sure card is empty before testing. Samsung EVO Plus card are used by others in the Viofo cameras with no problems, so it should be fine. I have used the 128GB EVO Plus and did not experience any issues. The Samsung EVO Select and SanDisk Ultra A1 (must say A1 on the card) cards work well with the Viofo cameras as well.

New Member

Just an update on this issue. It looks like the SD card that I have is a fake. I really hope this explains all the problems that I am having. I have a new SD card on the way. I will see whether this resolves all the issues.

New Member

Just an update. It looks like the problem is fixed now - it was just because of the faulty SD card.
However, I do have another issue with parking mode. When switched to Auto Event Detection, it just continually keeps recording - even though I have motion detection set to low and parking G sensor set to low. It just fills up the SD card by continually recording - even though there is no movement around the car.

Active Member

Is the camera properly switching to parking mode within 5-10 seconds of the car turning off? Do you hear the double beep when the car turns off? Is the parking mode icons changing?
Is power plugged directly into the camera or mount? Should be plugged into camera.

Double check that the parking mode icon of a car changes to the icon of a stick man (auto event detection) within 5-10 seconds of car shutting off.
Where do you park? Keep in mind that the camera is also sensitive to light changes. Do you have a red led that blinks on the top of your dash?

New Member

Thanks again for all your inputs. I checked the parking icon and I can confirm it is definitely switching to parking mode. There is no flashing red led in the car which could interfere with the camera. The only thing is that, when parked, the front camera is pointing towards the road ( about 50ft away ) and so it will see cars going along that road. Not sure if that is what is triggering it but then that's useless if it's going to be triggered by cars so far away.

Active Member

I'm not sure of the range of the motion detection, a veiw of a busy road probably doesn't help. Maybe aim the lens down one click to get a little less in the frame?

Viofo is still tweaking the settings in parking mode, so keep you eye out for updates.

Did you press the reset button on the side of the camera after updating the firmware (not the same as defaulting the camera from the menu)? Other users have found this helps with strange behavior as it clears the memory buffer.

Active Member

I think I would reload firmware v1.9, then manually default the cameras settings in the menu, then press the reset button. Just to cover all your bases again. Other than that, you may have to wait for a firmware update.